Company announces $8 million expansion in Deckerville

Published 12:11 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

DECKERVILLE - With hats and gloves on, Trim Trends Co., LLC employees removed snow and hosted a ground breaking ceremony Thursday for an $8 million expansion project which company officials say will eventually lead to the creation of 60 new jobs.

By Jeremy Carroll

The plant, which does stamping and welding of products for the automotive industry, as well as other industries, will use the expansion to install a new 1,600-ton press. Trim Trends will use the new press to become the only plant in the world to produce 14 different Frame Members for the upcoming Dodge Dakota, set to roll off the lines this summer.

The addition will include 37,500 square feet of new area along with utilizing an existing 11,000 square feet, Kurt Brown, plant manager, said.

Brown said the building will be completed the first week in April and the press will be installed in May. The plant will be producing parts by June, he said.

Actual construction of the building will begin during the first week of February, company officials said.

This is the first major expansion for Trim Trends since 1992, Dave Kuta, president, said.

"We're very happy to have it here," Brown said.

The expansion will be on the east side of the building and will split where the shipping and the receiving takes place. Receiving will be near the expanded building.

The building will be a taupe color, which will eventually be the color of the entire facility, company officials said.

Brown said the nearly 60 new jobs will come along slowly, and will be filled in less than a year. The plant has had a lot of new job bids come in, he said.

"We've grown to the point we're jammed in here," Brown said.

The new press will be completely automatic and the area will include an underground scrap converter.

Donald Graber, vice president of operations, said the company received some of the building space from the village, which has been very cooperative throughout the process.

"(The expansion) will be a boom for the industry and a boom for the community," Graber said.

"We need this," Debbie Apsey, President Pro-Tem on the village council, said to Graber. "This community needs this."

Just over a month ago, Deckerville's downtown was ravished by a fire, which destroyed the historic Blower Building, originally built in 1899.

"The fire has just been devastating," Apsey said. She said the expansion will be good for young couples moving into the area.

Dale Benish, executive director of Sanilac County's Economic Development Corporation, said they are expecting to hear back today about a block grant to upgrade Range Line Road to Class A status.

Carter Burgess out of Bingham Farms are the architects for the building, and Skanska out of Farmington Hills has been tapped to be the builders for the project.

Trim Trends in Deckerville currently employees 155 workers.

Trim Trends Co. is headquartered in Farmington Hills with four plant locations. Along with the Deckerville plant, the company has plants in Bryan, Ohio, Spencerville, Ohio, and Dundalk, Ontario. The company employs approximately 600 people, with the Deckerville plant currently having 155 workers.